Once you start being able to put points into Shadow, it gets easier. And believe it or not, they’ve vastly improved the mana efficiency of casters since debut…it used to be WORSE!
Put your first five talent points into a Shadow talent called Spirit Tap. This will improve your mana regen noticeably.
The best thing you can do is go to the AH and buy the best wand you can afford (low level wands are cheap because enchanters make them to level).
Then when you pull a mob, once they are down to 30% or so, just wand them down from that point. It’ll help you regain some mana for the next pull. Also make sure you are putting your first talent points in Spirit Tap, even if you’re not going Shadow.
Wands definitely help at the start, but like jayjay says, once you start getting talent points you ought to find that spells will be better. I’ve yet to play a priest past level 9, though, so I can’t really offer any advice on them.
And now I’m off to do the holiday thing. I refuse to believe I’m addicted to WoW, so I won’t spend the next couple of days thinking about all the advancements I could be making in two or three days’ worth of dailies…sigh…
Frankly, I’m kind of verklempt over the vast amount of playing time I’ll have over this four-day weekend (we’re not actually going anywhere but the dinner table) and the fact that I’m not able to play.
To an extent, yeah, but you’ll still notice problems with longer distances. My guild has a Resto Druid who’s Australian, and she almost always has some level of lag.
IIRC, the outages have been at least partly related to some kind of power outage. Not much Blizz can do about external circumstances. On the plus side, we might get some playtime credit. (Fat lot of comfort to people who missed out on what they wanted to do that the time, but.)
I’m leveling my new Priest as Disc so far, and that’s working fine. Granted, most of the time I’m questing with my friend on his Mage, but even solo, I’m not having any problems. I just bubble, DOT things up, and then wand them down. (I actually started as Holy, and then switched to Disc once I got to the level where I could start putting points into Meditation.) If you’re curious about what spec I’m using, do an Armory search for Simontam on Borean Tundra.
I have no doubt it would be massive fun with a DPS class at my side. And now that I have a wand (and soon a talent point!) maybe it will go more easily. Although, in truth, I’m hoping to not play her very much - I just needed a toon on a different battlegroup if Cairne/Emberstorm is going to keep having these issues.
I feel your pain. My two servers (Misha/Horde, Hyjal/Alliance) have also been unstable later in the (Pacific Time) evening.
Yeah, I think these problems are bigger than they are saying. My main server (draenor) won’t let me log in at all either. Cairne let me on, but the latency was like 9k, and that was just not acceptable. Of course this happens when I have time to sit around an play. Guess I’ll go play some more Torchlight…
Curious … does Caer Darrow/Scholomance have some tenuous connection to Outland? I just noticed that outside Scholomance is a Zangarmarsh-esque giant mushroom, and according to WowHead, pickpocketing Darkmaster Gandling can possibly get you some Skethyl Berries or Mag’har Grainbread. Hmmm.
Alas, killing Gandling didn’t get me that Helm of Valor I was looking for. Try again later, I guess.
Gah! Disregard that - I just looked again on WowHead and noticed that the Helm (and the boots, which Kirtonos dropped for me) are BoP, so it’s no good trying to use my pally to farm them for my warrior. I was fooled because the Bracers, Belt, and Gauntlets of Valor are all BoE, so I figured the rest of the set would be as well. I guess that explains why the Bracers, Belt, and Gauntlets were the only pieces I could ever find on the AH :smack:
Looking at the Boots and who drops them, though, it’s kind of irritating that a piece that requires only level 56 to equip is only dropped by a level 60 elite. So by the time you’re actually maybe able to get a group together to kill the specific mob, the gear is already 2-4 levels below you. If you ask me, that kind of thing only encourages people to get a level 80 to run them through instances. The rewards ought to be equal to the challenge, IMO.
Wow. Just wow.
What an awesome forum thread. I just finished the epic story. I hate to admit it, but it almost brought a tear to my eye at the end. Many thanks to whoever had posted about the thread here. I had some downtime while on my laptop and decided to take a peek. It was, by far, the most interesting thing I have read in the past 5 years. I also have one of my guildies addicted to it as well.
Bravo to the author, Dusk, as the replies of gratitude, admiration, thanks, and wanting to have his babies keep pouring in.
Yeah. We were putting together a VoA25 pug JUST when the data center fell over again.
After the requisite “Noooo!”, I hopped over to my shaman on Feathermoon (who dinged 50 and blew through leveling cooking with all the extra playtime I’ve put in on him due to outages) and spent the time working on pilgrim stuff. He managed [Turkinator] without any Turkey Snacks and plain running around shocking. I can now identify that fugitive glimmer of yellow far off in the forest as a turkey as opposed to anything else before I even get close enough to read the smear or see the mob itself. ><
I’m glad you liked “You Awaken In Razor Hill”. WoW interviewed Dusk, but then just stuck him on as a couple-paragraphs long tagline to another, unrelated article. 
That kind of genius deserves his own article, dagnabbit. An item in the game for him would be super awesome too, though. Spread the Dusk love!
Yay! I finally managed [Turkinator]! Did it in Venomweb Vale in Tirisfal right after I finished [Pilgrim’s Peril] in UC (much less crowded there this time). I’d completely given up on trying to get [Turkinator] in Elwynn. The best I’d managed there was something like 14 turkeys. I’d get the counter up there, and then ride around for the next two minutes without even seeing a single turkey.
All my 80 pally needs now is to blast a belf rogue with turkey feathers, and kill the big bird in Auchindoun. Guess I’ll need to find a group for that, since I’ve never been in the appropriate instance and have no idea where to go.
Things are even easier when I’m running with the Mage–I just slap PW:S on him, SW:P all the mobs, and wand things while I watch him on my focus to re-bubble him when the shield wears off (or HOT him up if the shield breaks before the debuff wears off). 
Can I ask how you’re currently attacking things? For your level (10-ish, it seems), my suggestion would be to PW:S yourself, pull with Mind Blast, get a SW:P ticking, and then spam Smite.
A level 56 player could very well contribute to the run if the rest of the raid were 57-90, and even a five-man group of 56es should be able to kill a 60 boss. They’re just going to miss a bit more often (and run into the issue of Crushing Blows). Hell, raid bosses are the equivalent of level 83s.
Yup, I discovered, too, that’s it’s do-able. Got it on my Mage without snacks or a spotter (and looting most of the corpses). Dunno if Venomweb Vale was always that deserted on ET, or if I just caught it at a good time, but there was no point where I didn’t have at least my next two turkeys in view.
ETA: Mister Rik, the guy you need to kill is the end boss. Sethekk is the eastern instance in the Auchindoun ring. Careful on the trash, as there are mobs that fear (Prophets?) and mobs that put up MC totems (Controllers; make sure to kill the totems ASAP to free the MC’d player). The final boss (who you need for the achievement) is the only one with a fight mechanic worth paying attention to. He’ll use Blink and then start casting an AOE spell. Make sure to get one of the room’s pillars between you and the boss (i.e., get out of LOS) before he finishes the cast or you’ll take a lot of damage. (IIRC, it was insta-gib at 70, not sure how it will be at 80.)
What would you go for?
A Scratchfever in-game pet?
A Pyramid Hogger Action Figure?
A Crotchless Tinmail Helm with Spork Bobble and Miniature Radar Dish?
Head-slot-equippable Exciting Underpants. Or a cactus costume.
Gris-Gris Hammer .50. /awe
What?
Actually, though, the Pyramid Hogger Action Figure or the equippable Exciting Underpants would be more in the spirit of the story.
As for Ikiss’s AOE, one blast only took a chunk out of me, but the LOS is still a reasonable caution. Definitely not instagib.
At 80, it’s largely ignorable on Heroic (it gets resisted as often as not, and only does a few K damage if it does hit you). At normal difficulty, it’s completely inconsequential.
Of course, you might as well head for a pillar anyway, since he’s immune to all damage while he’s casting the spell.
Geeeek. 
I’ve occasionally thought about a Priest, but I just couldn’t play one solo. Mage will be enough of a challenge. Leveling with a friend would be another story, but until then it’s meatshields all the way.
ETA after the edit timeout: And now that I’m sitting at my mother’s house without a game to play, I’m starting in on You Awaken In Razor Hill. I’m only just finishing the first page and I can tell this is going to be good.